Bank of Ireland announces further expansion in US with launch of new Real Estate team

"We are pleased to announce the establishment of our US property team and the appointment of Matthew Galligan as Head of US Property Finance. His experience and expertise will be invaluable as we build our US business. We are already an established player in the Irish, UK and European property financing markets. The opening of our US operation reflects our commitment to growing our property presence outside of Ireland. It is a significant development for our business and is in line with our strategy to continue to develop niche skill-based businesses internationally".

Bank of Ireland Corporate Banking today (22 June 2007) announced that it will be expanding its niche skill-based businesses internationally with the establishment of a property business in the United States. This is part of Bank of Ireland"s stated strategy to significantly reposition the geographic earnings profile of the Group.  Matthew Galligan has been appointed as Managing Director to lead the new team.

The new team will develop a niche in the US Real Estate financing market. All major market sectors will be covered including mixed, office, residential and retail. The Bank"s Global Property Finance team will both participate in syndicated transactions and direct lending relationships with existing players in the market.

Matthew Galligan joins Bank of Ireland with 30 years of real estate experience. He joins from DebtX, The Debt Exchange in the US, where he was Executive Vice President. Prior to that, he held senior origination and syndications positions in the Capital Markets teams in Chase Manhattan Bank, Bank of Boston and Fleet Bank. Additional appointments will be made in the near future.

Gerry Burke, Head of Global Property Finance, Bank of Ireland Corporate Banking said: "We are pleased to announce the establishment of our US property team and the appointment of Matthew Galligan as Head of US Property Finance. His experience and expertise will be invaluable as we build our US business. We are already an established player in the Irish, UK and European property financing markets. The opening of our US operation reflects our commitment to growing our property presence outside of Ireland. It is a significant development for our business and is in line with our strategy to continue to develop niche skill-based businesses internationally".

Contact:

Carol Gregory
Marketing Manager
Bank of Ireland Corporate Banking
Ph. + 353 1 604 4091

Anne Mathews
Media Relations Manager
Bank of Ireland, Group Corporate Communications
Ph: + 353 1 604 3836

Notes to Editors

The Global Property Finance Group, Bank of Ireland Corporate Banking provides attractive financing packages to leading property developers and investors. It is committed to the delivery of innovative and flexible debt structures for large property transactions across all segments of the property market in Ireland, the UK and mainland European markets.

The team"s expertise is focussed on residential and commercial development finance, investment finance, tax €“ based lending and arranging syndicate debt facilities. It has extensive deal origination and execution experience in all sectors of the property market.

Bank of Ireland Group is the leading provider of financial services products in the Republic of Ireland and has a major presence in the UK market. It employs c.16, 000 staff, has assets of €189 billion and generated pre-tax profits of €1.9 billion in the year ended 31 March 2007.